


Forward

by palavakarian



Series: FW: Forward [1]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27576656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palavakarian/pseuds/palavakarian
Summary: Part one of the FW: Forward series. Ever the trend-setter, Mulder emails Scully a meme. Will she take him up on his offer of spending New Year’s Eve together?
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: FW: Forward [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015759
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Forward

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:**  
>  Not mine, they’re just too cute for their own good.
> 
>  **Notes:**  
>  Special thanks as always to Alex for proofing and edits <3 This is Part One of a series of one shots I have planned. I just like the idea of how Mulder and Scully would talk to each other via emails or text messages? I dunno, we’ll see how this goes haha. Hope you guys enjoy it, please leave kudos if you did, and any kind of comment is always appreciated. (It feeds my writer’s soul, you know?)

**_***_ **

**Alexandria, Virginia**

**December 27 th, 10.15PM**

To: Dana Scully <'dkscully64@usol.com’>

From: Fox Mulder <'trustno1@usol.com’>

Subject: From Meow-ta Space!

Attachments: CATS-FROM-MEOWOUTTA-SPACE.JPG

Hey Scully,

I thought you might appreciate this – it certainly made me laugh, anyway. Hope you’re having a good Christmas, my Mom’s been asking after you. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was hinting for me to settle down with a sensible woman ;)

How’s yours been? Anything planned for New Year’s?

-Mulder

\- - - - - - -

To: Fox Mulder <'trustno1@usol.com’>

From: Dana Scully <'dkscully64@usol.com’>

Subject: RE: From Meow-ta Space!

Hey Mulder,

I’m not sure how you find these things, have you got a source leaking them to you periodically? You’re right, however. I did enjoy it. How is your Mom? I think she knows you’re in need of grounding sometimes; but she does know you never listen to me when I talk sense though, right?

All quiet over here, Bill didn’t feel like travelling this year so it was just me and Mom which has been nice. And no plans in particular, why? Please don’t tell me you have some apocalypse-at-midnight scenario you’re planning on investigating.

-Scully

\- - - - - - -

To: Dana Scully <'dkscully64@usol.com’>

From: Fox Mulder <'trustno1@usol.com’>

Subject: RE: RE: From Meow-ta Space!

The internet is a wonderful place Scully! I might have enough for a daily email campaign for you in the new year – if you’re interested, of course. I’m hurt, I always listen to you! (Admittedly, sometimes after the fact... yeah, I take your point.)

I assume you’re referencing the time we went to a haunted house on Hallowe'en? In which case, NO, it’s nothing like that. I was actually wondering if you wanted to see the new year in together? Could be fun.

-M

\- - - - - - -

To: Fox Mulder <'trustno1@usol.com’>

From: Dana Scully <'dkscully64@usol.com’>

Subject: RE: RE: RE: From Meow-ta Space!

...I honestly dread to think what would feature in that campaign, Mulder.

Good, because I don’t want a repeat of that night, ever. Sure, why not? Give me a call tomorrow and we’ll arrange it properly :)

-S

\- - - - - - -

To: Dana Scully <'dkscully64@usol.com’>

From: Fox Mulder <'trustno1@usol.com’>

Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: From Meow-ta Space!

What? All good, wholesome things, I assure you!

To be honest, I can’t say I blame you. Sounds perfect, I'll call about 11am?

Goodnight Foxy Lady

-M

\- - - - - - -

To: Fox Mulder <'trustno1@usol.com’>

From: Dana Scully <'dkscully64@usol.com’>

Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: From Meow-ta Space!

Perfect, speak then.

Foxy Lady? What am I, your groupee or something?

Goodnight, Mulder

-S x

\- - - - - - -

To: Dana Scully <'dkscully64@usol.com’>

From: Fox Mulder <'trustno1@usol.com’>

Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: From Meow-ta Space!

Maybe not groupee, but you love me right?

-M xx

**_***_ **

**Alexandria, Virginia**

**December 31 st, 11.47PM**

How he’d swung this, he’d never know.

It certainly wasn’t by virtue of the 'foxy lady' comment he’d made.

It was minutes until midnight; the clock counting the seconds before the moment the Earth began a new cycle around the sun. He was leaning against his kitchen counter as he idly scanned the labels of the small collection of bottles he’d acquired over time with the lack of inclination to drink. He selected a bottle of red wine, cap clicking as he deftly twisted it from its seal. He poured a measure into one of the waiting glasses and gave it a cautious sniff.

He didn’t really know what revelations he thought he was going to gain from sniffing the 'bouquet' or whatever it was you were _supposed_ to do with a bottle of... Shiraz? He shrugged to himself, topping up both glasses with a sizeable measure before screwing the cap back on. Wine was just something that seemed to appear in his apartment after his birthday and sometimes Christmas when someone was stuck on what to get him.

He hoped Scully would approve, anyway.

He hadn’t expected her to take him up on his offer to spend New Year’s Eve together – he assumed she would have had plans with friends or family and he was thus safe to ask – yet here they were, sharing a colourful assortment from his alcohol cupboard while Dick Clark's New Year’s Rocking Eve blasted out merriment from his TV set.

“Here you go,” he said, fingers grazing hers as he passed her the wine glass. It was a fleeting touch but it brought a smile to his face nonetheless; it held the promise of their steadfast friendship – even if he found himself wanting a little more than that from time to time. She was truly special to him and their relationship not something he took lightly, despite his best efforts to convince Scully he did. He was impulsive where she was measured; naïve where she was wise; a believer where she was sceptical... opposites in many ways but almost certainly – at least, he prayed to the deities he didn’t believe in – two halves of the same coin.

He had never met someone with whom he found everything was so effortless.

“Thanks,” she replied, her voice returning him from his thoughts.

“No problem,” he said as he lowered himself onto the couch next to her, the small space he’d carefully left between them quickly heating with the warmth that radiated so temptingly from her.

“This is a nice one.” she concluded after she had taken a sip, the smile that shaped her lips captivating him. A small part of him wondered if more wine in his current state was a good idea, though he supposed the worst he would do would be to drunkenly tell her he loved her. It wouldn’t have been the first time, and she always took it well... if not as seriously as he wanted her to.

“Is it?” he asked, letting the sharp smell assault his nose again before taking an experimental mouthful from his own glass. He raised his eyebrows as he swallowed, it wasn’t as acidic as the last bottle so he guessed that was something positive. “I can never tell with wine, it just seems to turn up on special occasions.”

Scully chuckled beside him, one eyebrow quirked as she spoke. “Like tonight?”

He blinked, leaning back on the sofa and reaching his arm up in a stretch. She watched him, eyes searching his face before unashamedly roaming across his chest in the fitted T-Shirt he was wearing and coming back to meet his gaze. Tentatively, she scooted closer and he let his arm settle across his shoulders, enjoying how she fit to his side so perfectly. “Like tonight.” he affirmed.

As the countdown on the TV reached its final five minutes, he leaned to place his glass on the coffee table alongside hers in front of them. Scully watched him with a questioning gaze as he nestled back beside her, a decision fuelled by equal parts desire and wine on the tip of his tongue.

“You know, I can’t think of a better way to end the year,” he ventured, lowering his head toward hers. “or of anyone I’d rather be here with.”

She smiled at that, closing the gap between them and resting her forehead against his.

He stilled. This was... new.

“I can think of worse scenarios for a New Year’s Eve,” she said, her words gently disturbing the air between them, tingling as they ghosted his lips. She smelled incredible this close; perfume and soap and something richer, something he couldn't quite place. Her skin was soft against his, a stray hair tickling his cheek.

“Me too, like that apocalypse-at-midnight case you thought I’d found for us.”

She laughed, her shoulders gently raising his arm as the sound rumbled between them. “Hey, that was a perfectly valid fear, Mulder, you have a track record for these kind of things! It’s all very ‘act first and think later' with you.”

He grinned, raising an eyebrow as best he could against her forehead. “Can...” he paused, breath hitching in his throat as a sliver of doubt winded him. Jeez, even with her pressed against his side he wasn’t confident of what her answer would be. This was Scully, mind, and he knew her well enough by now to know that she wouldn’t have accepted his arm around her if she didn’t want it there. She watched him, and if he didn’t know better he would swear she was enjoying watching the cogs whirring in his brain.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked, his nervous whisper usurped by the 'one minute to go!’ announcement on the TV. His heart thrummed as he waited for her to pull away, tell him she wasn’t interested; breath still held as he willed her not to know how nervous asking his best friend that simple question made him. He couldn’t screw this up, she was his one constant in life. “We brought in the millennium that way and uh, the world didn’t end.”

“Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen-“

She smiled at that, a laugh escaping her again. It sent a shiver of pleasure along his spine. “No, it didn’t,” she agreed.

“Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen-“

“I really want to kiss you, Scully. And it’s not just the wine – though I am thinking I’ve had a little too much-“

“Twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight-“

“Then kiss me, Mulder. I’d like that.”

“Seven, six, five, four-“

A smile curled his lips as he adjusted his head, mouth hovering just out of reach for now. He wet his lips with his tongue, suddenly conscious of how dry they felt and grazed her lip accidentally. He felt her smile more than he saw it as his heartbeat quickened.

“Three-“

An easy-going smile creased her eyes at the corners and in that moment there was only her. She filled his senses, the countdown diminishing in the background as he closed his eyes.

“Two-“

He gently bumped her nose with his own and was slightly shocked to feel her warm hand cup his cheek, thumb tracing a feather light path across his cheek bone.

“One!”

His free hand found the curve of her waist and settled there as their lips met, his heart doing an incredible impression of the fireworks he assumed would be going off outside; not that he could hear them – or wanted to, for that matter by the time his brain caught up with what his body was doing.

“Happy New Year!”

He felt her fingers leaving sparks in their wake as they wove into his hair, their lips lingering together before she pressed another kiss to his mouth, followed by another. She moved his head to deepen the kiss and he trailed his hand to her hip to pull her closer, feeling the soft swell of her breasts as she pressed into his chest as though she couldn't get close enough to him. They drew apart a fraction, lips still close enough that he could feel the smile that had captured her mouth. He felt blissful, high on her – and, well, maybe a little on the wine. Her green eyes carefully searched his hazel ones before she kissed him again.

“Happy-”

Both arms encircled his shoulders, pulling him as close as she could manage.

“New-”

Her tongue grazed his lower lip before she kissed him more insistently, needing more, something he was only too happy to give her. He opened his mouth for her, a surge of heat heading south as she cautiously drew her tongue across his. He let his hand drift to the small of her back, fingers coveting the exposed skin he found where her sweater’s hem had rode up. Breathing became a close second to tasting more of her, their kisses heating up as they explored each other in an increasingly desperate attempt to map the uncharted spaces of their bodies.

“Year.”

She finished breathlessly when they came up for air, both flushed as he returned his forehead to rest against hers. The earlier warmth between them had begun to sizzle, heat having threaded itself through his body at the feel of her against him. If the way Scully's pupils had dilated was anything to go by, he daresay she was in the same, if not a similar boat to him.

“Wow, Scully, and I thought I’d had too much wine,” he joked, the tease met with another kiss, teeth nipping gently at his lip while her fingers massaged the nape of his neck.

“Maybe I just like kissing you.” she said, her voice matter-of-fact as she shifted her weight and lowered her back to the couch, pulling him on top of her.

“That makes two of us.” he said as he pressed a kiss to her lips. With a bit of wriggling, Mulder adjusted them so that he was on the edge of the sofa with Scully tucked safely between him and the couch.

It felt like they fit together perfectly as the world seemed to open up around them again. The TV replaced his heart in the competition for loudest thing in the room and he lazily let his hand stroke Scully's hair, feeling her pulse beat steadily at his side. She looked up at him, watching him with an air of unfathomable intent as a grin overcame her mouth.

“I don't know about you, but I enjoyed that a lot more than our kiss at the millennium,” she said, a giggle rising through her at the beaming smile she received by way of an answer from him.

“Oh, it easily beats that one. For starters, there was tongue this time.”

“You’re such a guy!”

“What?” he asked with his best cheeky smirk. “I’m only human, Scully, gimme a break.”

“Hm, you know, sometimes I wonder if you're an alien plant, dropped back down to earth to gauge the reactions for first contact.”

“Oh, I see how it is. And you call _me_ the conspiracy theorist!” he replied, giving her a squeeze.

She laughed in return, her hand resting gently on his chest as he kissed her forehead.

“So where does this leave us? Where do we go from here?”

It was something he was wondering, but hadn't quite got the guts to voice. “Where do you want it to go?” he deflected. He knew which direction he wanted the ball rolling in and hoped she did, too. He just wanted to hear her say it.

She paused for a moment, green eyes examining his face as if the truths of the universe were written on there.

“I want to do this properly.” she said it slowly, eyebrows tugging together in the slightest frown, an expression he had learned meant she was contemplating something deeply.

“I want that too.”

She smiled, nodding as he punctuated their conversation with a light kiss which lingered against her lips.

“New year, new us?” Mulder joked, hoping that this was the moment she said yes; the moment she decided they were completely on the same page as each other.

“We’ll see,” she said, coyly. “I haven't made any resolutions yet.”


End file.
